Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 171

scare away wild animals when night fell and more importantly, to put up a signal for rescue as well. Then I
caught some fish with a stick and cooked them over the fire. How starving I was, I gobbled them down
almost in one mouth. When dawn lined the horizon in faint yellow, amazingly I had a gleam of hope as our
fleet came to my rescue. I couldn’t wait for the next bit of venture whatever it was adorned with beautiful
memories or arduous experiences.
Having sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, our fleet steered eastwards to the Indian Ocean which seemed a bit
calmer as though it was an omen of something good. Our captain had our vessel moored near an island
called Ceylon. An aroma hovering in the surroundings hit me walking into a street with lots of hawkers
touting tea leaves everywhere. I kept exploring here and there aimlessly till I felt creepy finding a place
what appeared to be a cemetery. Curiosity outweighed fear. I tiptoed in there to have a look. There found
some tombs with some Latin writings blurrily engraved on them. As the sun began to set, the whole place
became such gloomy and spooky that I decided to leave. All of a sudden, I tripped over something kind of
a box. Time was running short because I had to hurry back to the fleet before dusk. Be it good or bad, I
picked it up in haste and sucked it in my bag. The box was later verified by my mentor to be a Pandora
box. There’s a legend that it contains seven miseries to inflict mankind – war, famine, plague and one last
thing ‘hope’. I wondered, “Does it hint us anything that will be happening in future?”
While crossing the Pacific Ocean, we came across a fascinating island surrounded by seas, Ezo, presently
known as Hokkaido. So alluring that everyone would not resist but insist on an adventure there. By then,
we were allowed a day ashore to discover the beauty of this island. When I was stumbling down to the
shore which was all blanketed with snow, I descended, looking up ahead I saw that on the beach a whale
had come ashore and all the humans, dressed in festive dark attire, were dancing step dance for joy. It’s so
spectacular seeing the sun duck beneath the horizon, giving way to a beautiful sky with an egg yolk.
Walking further inland, amazingly I saw pairs of red-crowned cranes dancing in the snow. They bowed to
one another, then threw their heads over their back then bowed again, leaped into air and simultaneously
raised their wings calling in unison. The gorgeous sunset vividly illuminated the dusting of snow, the
dancing of cranes, all stitched into a marvelous panoramic view that would always be enshrined in my
memory.
It’s my last night on deck, again so excited I was that I didn’t sleep a wink. I stayed up all night and gazed
at the starry sky finding right overhead the North Star with its brightest glow as though it’s exuding its
confidence in guiding us towards the righteousness no matter we were, with the power of virtue.